CNN iReport

This is a 3 part piece:

I).    The question

II).   The answers I received and my own

III).   A summation

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I.  THE QUESTION:

I want to really pull this back and start the "human condition" conversation from scratch, literally. Let's start over, as though we were the founders of a new nation. If we're to do it right, it will take some reflection from a variety of people - so I'm hoping for some help here.

First...what do you believe to be the greatest gift you can give your neighbor? Assume he or she is of sound mind and body, and has a basic moral compass that is fully in tact.

Tangible or otherwise - if you could give only one other gift to that neighbor....what would it be?

Why am I asking?

I know my liberal friends and I are ultimately made of the same kindness, empathy and/or sympathy. I have absolutely no doubt about that. I have to wonder if you still know that though. I'm going to be honest: for every accusation I get of being (any or all of) an angry, bible-beating, sexist, homophobic, racist, closed-minded, wifebeating, dog kicking, moneygrubbing, war mongering, hate filled Republican...I get very few substantive answers. Respectfully, you'd think responses to argumentative but substantive accusations of general ignorance, would net a little better demonstration of intelligence (reason, understanding, meanings, etc). But still, I get mostly personal attacks. And I have to stop and think about that, because none of you are mean or stupid...and neither am I.

And it leads me to believe not that you're closed-minded or angry, but that maybe you feel cornered. And sometimes when a person's paths, decisions, arguments or values make them feel like they're in corners, it's due to positions they put themselves in. And that's not a bad thing at all; it's indicative only of life. But it's still important to recognize and work to remedy when it happens. This is when we make adjustments. Afterall, when is the last time the truth has done anything other than set you free?

So I want to, as briefly and respectfully as possible, compare notes - and believe this question to be a good place to start: If you could give only one gift to a neighbor, tangible or otherwise, what would that gift be? (If your answer is "love", please tell me how you envision that translating to a value for your neighbor).

All smartasses and debaters are welcome, but I'm personally hoping for some quick, reflective answers from anyone on the left (liberal or Democrat) who has one and is willing to share it.

Thank you.

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II.  THE ANSWERS I RECIEVED AND MY OWN:

Most of the answers were truly touching, and I'm glad to be reminded of how many great people are around. Reading them was a gift I honestly hadn't anticipated; I appreciate the time and thoughtfulness of all who shared.

In no particular order and representative of several duplicates...

conscience,
education,
compassion,
respect,
commitment,
the Constitution,
protection/security,
confidence,
time,
friendship,
a clean bill of social/political health.

All thoughtful...and all indicative of kindness and heart.

My answer is liberty; independence. Here's why...

It's a gift I think we take for granted. We hear about it, or were told how important it was growing up...but never really got our arms around the brilliant foresight attached to it. I believe our founders and early leaders were very much on to something, and I don't think we have to dig very deep to recognize the success of their efforts. These are the people who broke free of tyranny, fought their way to independence, came to admonish a world history that accepted slavery, and laid the foundation for what would become the greatest force for "good", freedom, opportunity, equality and prosperity that the world has ever known.

They got together, not unlike we just did, and carved out the first gifts they would give to all of their neighbors. Entirely different from the perches we're collaborating from however, our founders and early leaders established their gifts only after fighting and dying for the freedom and independence to do so. We shouldn't take that experience for granted, and what their experience meant in terms of the thoughtfulness they evoked when starting anew...away from tyranny and oppression.

Among the most defining of those gifts were life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

Life (which is a given), will be granted liberty (which can be taken) so that all who choose to - may pursue happiness (be it for their neighbors, themselves or both).

How far does liberty/independence go? Consider the following...

1). How would you obtain the ability to bestow your gifts to your neighbors, without the independence to first do for yourself?

2). How do you foresee the giving of these gifts to be sustainable as a nation, without the independence that facilitates our individual ability to garner and then give?

3). Are you mindful that a first gift of easement or entitlement...may actually deter from your neighbor's independence, thereby hindering his/her equal ability to capitalize on obtaining the gifts they can give themselves - and someday to their own neighbors?

I'm considering the opposite of each one of the gifts that were suggested. Extraordinary as they are, I can think of no opposite quite as detrimental as 'dependence'. In order...

Dependence empties the conscience, as wants become rights and pain becomes blame. It kills the drive to excel in education, making independent advancement moot. It suppresses compassion, commitment, confidence and friendship - in response to it's own sustenance. It would demand our respect, rather than earn it. It laughs at our Constitution. It creates danger, as it deters from our ability to protect ourselves. It wants to take your time, rather than apply it's own. It nurtures social and political corruption, as it capitalizes on the weakness it creates.

I believe with only the best intentions in mind, we have come to overlook the gift of liberty - and how it applies to the greater good, as a constant in a forward-looking long lens. It will take a very long time, and as much as it breaks our hearts...it will create innocent victims along the way. But if we are to ever create anything close to the utopia we envision in our consideration of "starting from scratch"...we, as individuals, must be responsible for that. Not our government. And no matter how long or messy the road may be, we must fight tooth and nail to retain the liberty that allows us on a good day to give - and on a challenging day, to prevent our government from infringing on that ability. The government does not give without taking, and dilutes our independence with every expansion of power.

We can do better than that, but as we allow our government to expand it's size and power...our collective ability, drive and commitment deteriorates.

I believe all men, women, races, gays, straights, religious folk and non....are created equal. I believe the efforts to take from one and give to another, negate that equality more than level it. I know it's very hard to see, but as well-intentioned and personally rewarding as it is to want to give...our efforts to do so at the federal level - largely and often have the opposite effect.

Independence is the greatest gift you can give your neighbor - so that he or she may grow to give unto themselves, and someday their own neighbor. And it's the greatest gift you can give to his or her family. And their family's family. And their neighbors. And, almost entirely neglected as of late....generations to follow. Have faith that we are created EQUAL, respect that equality, and give it time to grow and mature - rather than unfairly stunting it with dependence.

I would give independence. And I would give it generously. And I would watch it evolve in to gifts of freedom, security, opportunity and prosperity for almost as far as the eye can see. And when the government began to stifle it, amassing power as it absorbed our neighbors' will to retain his or her independence...I would get fired up about it, and I would fight for it.

No one thought things could get this bad. However, here we are. And few give credence to the fragility and importance of our liberty and equality. And increasingly, fewer still respect it. So now it's slipping, and regardless of how misconstrued, mangled or unfairly labeled my efforts (and the efforts of those who think like I do) may be...we're going to fight for them. Strip away "Democrat" or "Republican", and be mindful of our liberty and equality. What do they mean to you? What are you without them? What are you to your neighbor without them, and what is your neighbor to him or herself without them? Give independence, give it generously, and watch the good follow.

Smaller government, lower taxes, less wasteful spending, less opportunity for corruption, rejecting the dependence of false victimization...better you, better your neighbor, better America, better planet.

I'll leave you with a quote:

"I am for doing good to the poor, but...I think the best way of doing good to the poor, is not making them easy in poverty, but leading or driving them out of it. I observed that the more public provisions were made for the poor, the less they provided for themselves, and of course became poorer. And, on the contrary, the less was done for them, the more they did for themselves, and became richer."

-Benjamin Franklin...not a dumb guy, and not stuff to be taken for granted.

By the way, if you think embracing any of this comes with a whole bunch of strings attached...

I think abortion is wrong, and challenge anyone to find a woman who feels great about having one. For this reason, I hope the debate never ends. However, I don't think there is a place for it as a political issue. I believe if it is ever to be recognized as the moral injustice it is, it too must be dealt with at the grass roots level, and resolved not by law...but by the onset of increased, ultimately liberating, personal responsibility. Additionally, I support the legal right for a man to marry a man and a woman to marry a woman - but do not believe any church should be forced by law to perform a ceremony, any more than it's congregation should be able to use law to prevent one.

So just because you want less government, lower taxes, and/or respect for equality without the constant battery of synthetic victimization...doesn't mean you have to shift your entire belief system. The gifts you cited were outstanding. Show me a sustainable way to give any of them without first capitalizing on our own independence, or a government that will do so equitably and without far more detrimental enterprise, performance repercussions...and I'll show you an Obama bumper sticker on my car.

Call me crazy, but I just don't see it happening.

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III.  SUMMATION:

The bottomline is that our strength was a result of a nation of individuals
motivated and liberated by and through independence.  And as many of us, myself
included, appropriate blame at Obama, Pelosi, Frank, Dodd, Clinton, Carter
and/or Bush - we fail to recognize that this is OUR country, and that these
politicians are OUR employees.  If they're failing us, and/or compromising the
private sector that was built exclusively through the merits of individual
liberty...WE are to blame for letting them do it, for not discussing it, and for
shutting out the voices of any peer or neighbor whose warnings go against the
grain of our own ideologies.

This crisis would not have happened had the government not embedded itself in a
cornerstone of our private sector: the housing market.  All debate around "what
caused this" beyond that, is extraneous.  It would be like investigating the cause of death to a person who was beheaded, by spending all your time trying to rule out suicide.  I think we can all agree that as
individuals, a nation and world....we'd all prefer a less promising
renter-to-homeowner ratio, than the mess caused by the government's efforts to
improve it.  But it happened, and we let it.  As we face exponentially greater
government intervention in to the private sector, and infringement on individual
liberty through the expansion of government programs that deter from the use of
our independence...let's not let it happen again.

The individual made this country great, and the individual is to blame for
spiraling to a stature well below "greatness".  The individual will also absolve
us of this downward spiral.  Forget about "Democrat" or "Republican"; these
terms, despite their very real place in our history and future, currently only
evoke our most defensive and confrontational natures.  Like any failing
business, this is a good time to re-evaluate the fundamentals that afforded us
our initial prosperity and success...and strip away the peripheral agendas that
came to hinder it.

There is no greater fundamental than individual liberty.  Exercise yours now by
engaging your neighbors and peers in similar conversation that focuses not on
aisle-alignment or minutiae, but raw values and fundamentals.  And as you do so,
I'm doing my part by asking you to consider the following...

"Come on.  Our current leadership isn't infringing on individual liberty,
independence or responsibility.  Get real!"

A gorging government that increases taxes and wasteful spending so it can expand it's own power in the name of "stimulus" - does one thing absolutely every time: increases dependence. Now you tell me...if "dependence" is on the rise, what must obviously and alternatively be in decline?

It's on us to fix this.  And this conversation is a very important place to
start.  Please have it.

Thanks and take care.